Dormitory fire: Police arrest four school staff
Four of the victims are pupils at New Crest Junior at Kibedi Day and Boarding Primary School in Kawempe Division Kampala City
What you need to know:
- Police spokesman Fred Enanga said when their experts analysed the burnt dormitory, they found out that the school didn’t adhere to the standards set up by the Ministry of Education and Sports.
The police have arrested four staff of New Crest Junior at Kibedi Day and Boarding Primary School in Kampala, including the director and headmaster, after a dormitory fire that killed four children on Saturday.
The officials are being held on charges of rush and negligence.
Police spokesman Fred Enanga said when their experts analysed the burnt dormitory, they found out that the school didn’t adhere to the standards set up by the Ministry of Education and Sports.
“They had tripple decker beds in a dormitory that accommodated more than 50 pupils. There were no fire prevention equipment in the dormitory,” Mr Enanga said yesterday.
Genesis
On Saturday night, a fire started in a girls’ dormitory in Kisowera Zone, Kawempe I Ward in Kawempe Division, Kampala City, but the school management extinguished it without contacting the police. Three pupils were seriously injured.
However, four bodies of pupils below the age of 10 were later recovered, prompting residents to contact the police, an act that detectives say tantamounted to negligence.
The school remains closed as investigators continue.
In 2018, the police issued guidelines on fire safety measures in schools. The schools were ordered to have fire prevention equipment.
The police also banned tripple decker beds.
However, many schools haven’t implemented many of these preventive measures.
